


Wounded Doves

by Capucine



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Asexual Character, F/M, Hearing-impaired Character, Mental Health Issues, Pre-Shippuden, Suicide Attempt, Team Gai - Freeform, alternate universe - psych ward
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-03
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-02-03 05:50:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1733405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Naruto is in the Children's Psych Ward at Konoha hospital. How does he deal with being put there? Who does he meet? It turns out, there are some interesting characters in the psych ward.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Just a note, I've been in a children's psych ward; however, these are not real people who I've met in the psych ward, as that's against the rules.

"I don't even belong here..." Naruto complained, head lolling as he was wheeled in.

"This is your nurse. If you need anything, you ask her, all right?" The nice lady who wheeled him in gestured towards a rotund woman in scrubs, who was watching him. The nice lady handed the bag of his clothes to her, and smiled at her.

The nurse nodded, took the bag, and disappeared into the nurses' station. When she came back out, the nice lady was gone. She gestured to Naruto, saying, "Can you walk on your own?"

"Um, yeah..." Naruto said, feeling icky in his hospital gown.

"Mhm," she said, looking over his file. She sighed, and gestured towards a room. "There are scrubs for you to wear in there. Hideaki will watch you change."

"Wait, watch me?" Naruto's jaw dropped. "Seriously? It was just an accident!"

"That's how things work around here," was all she said, as the man he assumed was Hideaki showed up.

He watched him change in that room in silence, and it never felt like he was staring, more like he was keeping an eye out. Still, Naruto could honestly say he'd had much better experiences changing.

"Come on," he said as he came out, "You can see I'm not crazy! You have to let me go!"

"Don't raise your voice at me, please," the nurse said, and she gestured to another room. "Follow me."

Naruto followed, if only so he could keep pleading his case. "I mean, seriously, do I look crazy to you? I'm not a psycho! I don't belong here!"

As they entered the room, two boys looked up. One had thick eyebrows and a fairly ugly mug, in Naruto's opinion; the other had long hair and a very solemn expression. Both looked at him like he was just another face in the ward.

"Naruto, these two will be your roommates. Neji and Lee, this is Naruto. Please show him the same respect you show each other." As Naruto stared back at them, they nodded, mumbling their assent.

The nurse put a blanket in Naruto's hands, saying, "It's past time for any snacks or group activities; you'd better get to bed."

"But I don't belong here!" Naruto said plaintively, but his nurse was already out of the room.

"Really? You don't belong here? You think that's going to get you out?" Neji, the one with the long hair, snorted. He sat down, and Naruto could see that his arm was bandaged from top to bottom.

Lee, the other, sat behind him on the bed and started braiding his hair. "Sorry, but they don't send you here unless you need help! And all of us do!"

Neji was silent.

"Really? You guys look normal... enough." Naruto was trying to figure out what their problems could be, but it was impossible to determine.

"You look like you belong here," Neji said, not turning to look directly at him.

"What?! Come on, I do not!" Naruto insisted, glaring at Neji.

"No, you do. Everyone like us has this look to them, in our eyes... You've got that look." Neji sat patiently, waiting for Lee to finish with his hair.

"Good night!" Came the cry as some girl hurried past.

"Good night, Tenten!" Both boys said in unison, though Lee considerably louder.

"What-- who was--?" Naruto turned to look, but she was already gone. He could hear a nurse say, "No running!"

"It's bedtime. Trust me, you want to be rested for tomorrow," Lee said, and as he had finished with Neji's hair, he crawled into his bed.

Naruto huffed, but climbed into bed. He could talk to his foster parents in the morning... they would get him out of here.


	2. 2

It smelled like a hospital in the psych ward, even though there were pictures of giraffes and other happy animals on the walls. It was a calm blue that surrounded him, but the air still smelled stale.

"Well, we're not supposed to touch people..." 

Naruto heard a voice, it sounded like Lee's. Naruto himself still had his face buried in his pillow, despite having woken up a couple hours ago. It was hard to sleep knowing that the door out was locked and there was no way out. It was hard to sleep with a girl crying in the room down the hall.

"But he won't be awake in time for breakfast if he doesn't--"

Naruto sat straight up, the word 'breakfast' like magic. "What's for breakfast? Do we get to choose like a buffet?"

Lee raised his massive eyebrows, saying, "Yes! But you don't get to choose today, because you have to fill out a form the day before; Neji always chooses the same stuff, but I like to vary it up!"

Naruto groaned, getting changed. He wasn't much bothered by the idea that they might be watching. "So like, I could ask for bacon and stuff?"

"Yes, but the bacon here isn't that good. It's hospital food, after all," Neji said, and Naruto realized that Lee was brushing out his hair for him. Weirdos.

"Hey, are you two like, gay or something?" Naruto stared at them, as if that would make them confess.

Neji blanched, as if the very thought sickened him to his core. But Lee was the first to say something, glaring at Naruto. "Stop that! It's not fair to Neji; just because he has long hair doesn't mean he's gay! He's--"

"Asexual," Neji supplied, adding, "Aromantic." His eyes were cold towards Naruto. "But it would be like an allosexual to assume there was something going on."

"Wha...?" Naruto didn't get it at all. How could a person be asexual? And what the hell were aromantic and allosexual? But he could see he had gotten off on the wrong foot, and rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. "So, yeah, sorry. Bad guess."

Lee frowned, saying, "It's not funny. And you don't want to make Neji mad, okay?"

"Will he hulk out?" Naruto teased, but seeing that both of them gave him a glare, he dropped it. "Yeah, fine, okay."

A nurse poked her head in the room, saying, "It's time for breakfast; the others are already out there."

So they headed out. There were four people already out there: a guy covered in bandages, a dude with crazy hair slurping from a cup of orange juice, a girl with extremely long hair and a scowl on her face, and lastly, a girl with her hair in two buns, looking over her shoulder to see them coming. When she spotted Neji and Lee, she grinned.

"Neji, Lee! Over here!" she said, pointing at the table. They were all wearing scrubs, though their color was blue, so it didn't match the nurses.

Neji and Lee walked over to a trolley-thing, and Lee pulled two trays out, stacking one on top of the other. "Yours will have your name on it," he told Naruto, and sure enough, a tray with what looked like some kind of receipt sat on the bottom of the trolley-thing.

He joined Lee and Neji at the table, which earned him an antisocial look from Neji.

"Who's this?" the girl wanted to know.

"Tenten, Naruto. Naruto, Tenten," Lee introduced. He dug into a huge breakfast, with scrambled eggs, pancakes, sausage, a hard-boiled egg on the side, rice, coffee, tea, and a bagel.

Naruto opened his tray to find he had almost as much stuff, as if they were sure he would starve if they didn't get a lot of food in him at that very moment. He started to eat, nodding at Tenten. "Hey. Sup."

Tenten sort of ignored him, looking over at Neji and Lee. "So, what's the guy like who comes in and does prayers?"

"Oh right, that's today!" Lee looked shocked, but then he added, "He's very nice, but you don't have to go if you don't want to."

"Some guy comes in and prays with us?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Is he a priest or something?"

"No, like a reverend, I think," Lee said, and Neji put in,

"It's very calming, like meditating."

"Hey, weirdo," came over from another table; it was the crazy-haired guy. "Did your dad fuck you up the ass? Is that why you're in here?"

Naruto could feel a flash of anger, since it was clear it was directed at him from the dead-on stare. "How about I fuck you up the ass?!" he snapped, standing up.

"Zaku! Naruto! Stop this immediately!" A nurse stood between them; she was a large lady in purple scrubs. "Zaku, over there," she gestured to an empty room with no door, "Naruto, to your room."

"But I didn't start it," Naruto whined.

"I said go."

They both went their ways, and Naruto couldn't help but think how stupid this all was. He definitely didn't belong here.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto gets to know his fellow patients.

It was boring to be stuck in his room. He'd tried to take the food with him, but he'd been told that food was not allowed in the rooms, and it would still be there when he got back.

He stared at the blue walls, sure they matched his eyes. Maybe that wasn't the case, but it was easier to imagine than to think he'd have to be here at least a week.

He heard rustling, and a nurse appeared, wearing Pokemon scrubs, with another nurse in green scrubs. The first nurse said, kindly, "I'm your nurse for today. My name's Hana. If you have any problems, you should come to me. This is Marc, the psych technician. His job is to take your vitals. We also have to give you a blood test, and someone will be up to do that later."

Naruto nodded, a bit sullenly. Marc stuck a thing in his mouth, which took his temperature, and then checked his heart beat and blood pressure. "All good," he said, marking it down on his clipboard. He pushed away the cart full of testing machines, surely off to go bother some other teen.

"You can leave your room now, but no more confrontations," Hana said, "The first group, art therapy, has already started, but I'm sure there's enough time left for you to join them."

"Yeah, okay, but I really don't belong here! I'm not crazy," Naruto said, but Hana ignored it.

"Please go join the group. You can't get better without help."

Naruto grumbled to himself all the way to the art room; it was easy to find because all the doors were labelled. This one was in several colors, all standing out against the blue background. Naruto pushed open the door, to find the others from breakfast were in there.

"Naruto! Come on this side of the table!" Lee shouted, and there were four chairs on either side, Naruto realized. Three on the nearer side were occupied by the bandage guy, the long-haired girl, and that asshole from earlier. The farther side had Lee, Neji, and Tenten.

He swiftly sat next to Tenten. "Hey. What're you guys doing?"

"Painting masks!" Tenten chirped, and he saw that half of hers was covered in gray, the other in red and orange and even a hint of motley pink.

The therapist in charge said, very kindly, "We're painting masks that represent how we feel we are. If you'd like to join us, Naruto, you can grab one from the middle."

Naruto shrugged, and grabbed a wide, white mask. He reached for the bright orange paint, but his hand collided with the long-haired girl's hand.

"I'm using that," she said, gripping the bottle.

Naruto looked at her mask: completely black. "No way, you're done!" he insisted, and tried to pull the bottle from her.

She glared. "I still need it!"

The therapist cut in then. "Naruto, why don't you let Kin use it first, and then you can use it next? There's enough orange paint for both of you."

Kin didn't let go.

Neither did Naruto. "That's not fair! She didn't have it first!"

"Do I have to put you in the quiet room?" the therapist sighed. "I really want you both to be able to express yourselves here, and if you're going to fight, there's going to be a problem."

Naruto let go. Kin looked triumphant, and put some of the orange paint on her paper plate.

Naruto had to grab it himself after that, because she didn't hand it back to him. He swiftly set to work covering his mask in orange.

"That's bright," Tenten commented, finished with her mask.

"Wow! You're putting a lot of great ideas on your mask!" Lee said enthusiastically. His was green and orange, but with a long, jagged line of black across it.

It was about then that Naruto noticed a strange device on Lee's ear. "Hey, what's that?"

Lee's hand seemed to almost self-consciously touch it, but Neji cut in first.

"It's a hearing aid, don't be stupid."

"So you're deaf?" Naruto asked, eyebrows raised.

"Hearing-impaired," Lee said, and he focused back on his mask. He seemed quiet at that point.

Tenten glared at Naruto. She wouldn't say anything, but she did scoot closer to Lee. It was obvious that Lee's hearing aids were not generally talked about.

Naruto had only just put stripes on the sides of the orange colored mask when the therapist said, "Well, that's it for today. You have twenty minutes to enjoy yourselves."

They set the masks to dry, and he followed after the three who had actually been mostly friendly. "Hey. Hey! What's wrong with talking about his hearing aids?"

Neji gave a cold glare. "Shut up."

Tenten chewed her lip, then she grabbed Naruto's shoulder and pulled him away. "Look, his hearing aids are a sensitive issue. Lots of people here have sensitive issues, so you shouldn't go blabbering away, okay?"

"Yeah, I guess." Naruto wasn't sure what the big deal was.

"You wouldn't want someone talking about your suicide attempt, would you?" she demanded.

"It wasn't a suicide attempt-- wait, how the hell do you know that?"

Tenten rolled her eyes. "People are here for three reasons: suicide attempt, severe abuse, or anger issues. You arrived in the middle of the night, and I saw you as you came in; you have charcoal around your lips."

Naruto stared back, and wiped at his mouth. "Yeah, well, stop it. It wasn't a suicide attempt."

"Sure." Tenten sighed, and then turned away. "Try to read the atmosphere, if you can."

Naruto didn't know what to make of her. He just watched as the two groups of three congregated together.


End file.
